SPACE RECAP

I made my annual spring trip to Columbus Ohio a few weeks ago for the 13th iteration of the Great Midwestern SPACE Comics Fest.  I love Columbus, and I love SPACE.  I've never had a bad time coming out for this show, and after thirteen years it's taken on a kind of family reunion aspect for me, as it has I think for a lot of other longtime attendees.  Plus, in the last few years, folks from the coasts have begun making the trek and that's cool too.  (Last year saw my pals MariNaomi (SF) and Colin Upton (Vancouver) come out, and this year Joseph Remnant (LA), Eamon Espey (Baltimore) and Tom Hart and Leela Corman (Florida) made the trip.)  Excellent all around.  I had a great time.

Spit and a Half corner

Mark Rudolph, J.T. Dockery, Eamon Espey

Joseph Remnant, Tom Hart

I was delighted to see Tom Spurgeon in the hallway when I first walked in.  I am a big fan of his writing on the Comics Reporter, and I didn't expect him to be there.  Happily, I got to spend a good amount of time chatting with him.

Penina Gal, Tom Spurgeon, Carol Tyler

Saturday night after the show, everyone went out for Vietnamese food and then headed down to a coffeeshop on High Street to see Eamon Espey perform his story "Ishi's Brain," as a puppet show with his partner Lisa Krause.  It was a beautiful thing.  Later, Leela and Maddie played music and JT Dockery wowed 'em, but I was on 4 hours sleep, so had to turn in early.

Saturday night performance of "Ishi's Brain".

Sam Spina flyin' the flannel on Sunday morning.

Detroit's Finest: Parisel

Nate McDonough, Nils Balls, Dan McCloskey: Pittsurgh represent

J.T. Dockery, whose balls out rock n roll performance Saturday night I unfortunately missed.

Bryan Moss, Ed Piskor

Cleveland's Kevin Czapiewski

Marnie Galloway and husband Tom

Leela Corman and Tom Spurgeon

The great Larry Blake, who kept things lively with a boombox jamming The Ramones and Sweet all weekend.

Whoa, I got this great original marker drawing of the Ramones from Larry for only $10!

Comics as Memoir Panel moderated by John Steventon, with Tom Hart, Nate Powell, Chris Monday, Dara Naraghi, and yours truly.

Sunday evening everybody cleared out quick.  I had some more Vietnamese food for dinner, and then sleep, blissful sleep.

James Thurber House, 77 Jefferson Avenue

Monday morning I kicked it around Columbus.  I had a couple days off, so I spent them book buying and sightseeing.  First stop, the James Thurber House, a Columbus attraction I had somehow never visited in all my trips there over the years.  Enjoyable.

Then I made my usual stops: Used Kids Records, the Wexner Center Bookstore, Laughing Ogre (where I picked up some nice 70's Marvel horror comics), and a couple Half Price Books where I loaded up on cheep comix/GNs etc.

Tuesday I went back into town to visit Gib at the Ogre, and yes, buy more comics.  This time the Wally Wood bio "Wally's World" and a copy of "Pussey!"  Why not.  That evening, on the way back to my lodging, I went for a walk in the woods, where the Dutchman's Breeches, Toothwort, and Rue Anenome were all in bloom.  Then: Rain.

Dutchman's Breeches

(Dicentra cucullaria)

Wednesday Morning I was picking up Stephanie at the Columbus Airport and we were heading east to Pittsburgh together, for the Drawing Power Conference at the Carnegie Library.  More on that next time!

Columbus, O.

MARCH TOUR DIARY, Part One: Columbus

I recently headed out on a 10 or so day roadtrip, with stops in Columbus (for the SPACE show), Pittsburgh (a signing at Copacetic), and back in Chicago (for Zine Fest). Here's what went down:

True to form, I got a late start, and hit the road in the middle of an anxiety attack.  I thought I'd be smart, and avoid Chicago traffic by taking the southern route, but somewhere around Champaign I realized I was driving 100's of miles out of the way.  And then I remembered I'd lose an hour crossing the time zone.  So I gave up on my dreams of making Columbus by a decent hour, and slept in the car in a rest area, about 45 miles from town.

It was really cold, around 32º.

Well, good morning!

Preparing convention face.

Spit and a Half table, Part One.

Part Two.

Bruce Chrislip's display of Outside In pages/covers.

Including one by this whippersnapper.

Obscuro Comix luminaries, L - R:  Dan W. Taylor, Steve Willis, Bruce Chrislip, Colin Upton, Mike Hill.

Steve Willis, Carol Tyler, and the inimitable Max Traffic.

The presence of greatness.

Bruce Chrislip, founder of the City Limits Gazette.

It had been 10 or so years since I'd attended the SPACE show, and it was great to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, and a lot of new people too.

After Day One of the show, we all went out for Vietnamese food and shot the breeze for a couple hours, until it was pointed out that it was the night of the "Supermoon," and we all ran out into the parking lot to be disappointed.

The alleged "Supermoon" hovers over Morse Road.

Day Two of the show was hectic as usual, and afterwards Colin and I, along with Detroit mainstays Sean Bieri and Suzanne Baumann, caught a weird bite to eat in the lonely hotel bar before saying our goodbyes.

I stayed in Columbus one more day, selling comix to shops (Used Kids Records, where I picked up copies of Soul Asylum's amazing Made to Be Broken, a De La Soul singles collection, and Joe Tex's Greatest Hits; the fab DIY boutique Wholly Craft; and Laughing Ogre), and then browsed the Wexner Center's great bookstore before retiring to a falafel dinner and preparations for the next day's drive to Pittsburgh -- a town I'd never been to before.

NEXT STOP:  Pittsburgh!